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The article discusses the relations between the Netherlands and Spain during the Dutch War of Independence and throughout the seventeenth century, focusing on Dutch efforts to garner hard currency in the form of Spanish silver from their colonies. It discusses the Netherlands burgeoning international trade during the period, smuggling, the West India Company and its attacks on Spanish Atlantic trade vessels, and the Dutch East India Company.

This essay deals with rules and attitudes towards the Spanish succession crisis from 1580 to the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty in 1700. It argues that apart from succession laws, which were set down in the legal texts of the many different realms under Habsburg authority, attitudes and expectations created implicit rules for the succession. These attitudes and expectations have been distilled by analyzing testaments, representation of deceased relatives in the Escorial, and the behaviors toward royal children. This analysis shows that Spanish royal attitudes to the succession differed considerably from codified law, and the kings of Spain were primarily guided by the former. This essay demonstrates, therefore, that in order to understand the development of the Spanish succession crisis, the traditional focus on biology, politics, and laws should be expanded to include the dynasty's implicit rules of succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how the rise of printed news media during the opening decades of the seventeenth century fomented and fragmented authority in the polycentric Spanish Habsburg empire. Analyzing the making, dissemination, and reception of transatlantic news from Madrid to Mexico and from Lisbon to Lima, the article explores how the influx of fragments of unverifiable information from overseas undermined the possibility of complete knowledge. While the Spanish Crown exploited news media to create a sense of a unified imperial space, the dynamics of distance resulted in uncertainty and the spread of conflicting narratives that fractured central control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Founded in 1430, the Order of the Golden Fleece was perhaps the most iconic dynastic institution in the Low Countries. It bound together a selective group of high nobles, promoting shared values and loyalty, and was an inexhaustible storehouse of political imagery. The Dutch Revolt seriously disrupted this venerable company. Its officers became estranged, the numbers of knights rapidly declined, and original objectives were questioned. Nevertheless, the Order's Burgundian heritage and its enduring material memory retained a strong political potential. This article explores how both royalists and dissidents exploited the signs and codes of old to criticize − and even redress − royal policy. As such the (sometimes contradictory) use of the Order's symbolism ensured the Netherlands' status as ritualistic nerve centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philip II's death in September 1598 coincided with the restoration of Habsburg authority in the southern Low Countries after decades of revolt. Local obsequies for the deceased ruler therefore reclaimed ecclesiastical infrastructure and revived urban cohesion. In contrast to previous funerals, the Brussels service did not significantly stage a transfer of power. Instead, by selectively drawing on traces of former ceremonies, particularly Charles V's 1558 funeral, the ritual overcame the recent upheavals and soothed the anxieties surrounding the cession of sovereignty to the archdukes. Simultaneously, each important urban center also staged its own ceremonial, thereby stressing local privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the radical history of the Habsburg Empire of Spain. Topics discussed include an analysis of the political culture of the Spanish Habsburg world, and the scholarly fragmentation of the Spanish Habsburg Empire into European, Atlantic and/or American, and Asiatic parts having resulted in delineations of space based on future geopolitics.

The Florentine humanists of the 15th century combined public service with their work as historians. Quevedo followed that tradition from his first works like España defendida, and the Discurso de las privanzas. In 1613 he decided to travel to Italy to serve as secretary and right hand man of the Duke of Osuna, viceroy of Naples and Sicily. These were times of an intense activity, described in Grandes anales de quince días, a work written to prove his innocence and to win over the new monarch and his ministers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The name of Fray Luis de León is not cited in the extant papers of Teresa de Jesús and Luis de León himself declares 'not having known her on Earth'. But this unequivocal statement raises questions for the reader acquainted with the permeability of his works over the distinction between the literal and the secret that he found to be the inner constitution of sacred texts. This article proposes, therefore, a rereading of Luis de León's words within the framework of his philosophy, Augustinian in origin, where they acquire the condition of signs for privileged access to one of the narratives in La perfecta casada and a reassessment of his relationship with Teresa, a relationship that can be understood, in the most proper sense, as intimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the travel account authored by Moroccan ambassador Muhammad al- Ghassanı, who visited Spain in 1690 -91. The account shows the evolution of the early modern frontier between Christian Europe and Islamic North Africa, from a militarized boundary to the development of diplomatic relations. Both an agent and witness of that history, al-Ghassanı describes a heterogeneous space: he surveys the border, explores the foreign land of modern Spain, and reimagines the memory of al-Andalus. His important account, based on sharp observation and serious research, helps nuance the prevailing view that Arab culture had ignored Europe before the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tiempos Modernos is the property of Tiempos Modernos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Histórica: Historia Moderna is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Treaty of Marche-en-Famenne – the Eternal Edict of 12 February 1577 – was a peace treaty signed by the new Governor-General of the Netherlands, Don Juan de Austria, and the insurgent States-General of the region, dissatisfied under Spanish Habsburg rule. This contribution analyzes how peacemaking implied more than just signing a treaty: the Eternal Edict sparked a six-month long pacification process that aimed to put it into effect and to advance the recently concluded reconciliation. Moving from Leuven to Brussels to Mechelen, the Governor-General used his Entries in these cities to present himself as a peacemaker, while he commissioned printed editions of the treaty and of its ratification by Philip II. Meanwhile he engaged his secretaries and delegates to follow up on the implementation of the treaty. His opponents, however, opposed these peace initiatives swiftly with vetoes at the negotiation table and a relentless stream of counter-propaganda. In the early modern era pacification relied upon a complex process of aligning all parties through negotiations and ceremonies, yet in this case the interplay between the mise-en-oeuvre and mise-en-scène failed within six months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among her many accomplishments, Spanish intellectual and artist Cecilia Morillas (1539–81) is remembered for her correspondence with King Philip himself and her numerous artistic talents, including the illustration of manuscript documents and maps, which she often used to display her scientific knowledge. Morillas’s artistic and scientific contributions in her lifetime may have been obscured by the fact that she utilised traditionally ‘feminine’ materials, yet her case is important to highlight as it illustrates the intersection between art and science during the early modern period and provides insight into the domestic education of young women in Spain. As a counterpoint to the conservative model of humanistic education, Morillas cultivated a home environment that enabled her children to develop considerable skills and talents in both the arts and sciences, often utilising the moralising endorsement of domestic chores, especially for her daughters, as an entry point into a variety of intellectual pursuits. This article contributes new dimensions to Morillas’s biography and the status of her family by bringing together for the first time a variety of unpublished archival documents. In addition to fleshing out the biography of this erudite woman, this article points to the ‘domestic arts’ as a legitimate realm of women’s intellectualism not only for Cecilia Morillas, but as a case study for the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the position of the consuls in the diplomatic network of the Dutch Republic as defenders of the interests of Dutch merchants and as quasi-public officials. Although consuls did not enjoy diplomatic status, Dutch consular practice in Spain between the Peace of Munster (1648) and 1661 shows that they were more than suppliers of economic, political, and military intelligence. Consuls were a vital connecting element in Dutch diplomacy and could affect the States General's policy towards Spain by exerting influence on politicians at home and on Dutch diplomats abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts over precedence were a disruptive but integral part of European diplomacy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This article will explain both the insolubility and the importance of such conflicts, by analyzing the actual arguments made by French and Spanish publicists between 1564 and 1610 who argued for the supremacy of their own king. This analysis shows that national concepts of kingship were central to their reasoning: they identified the most characteristic features of their own brand of kingship and presented these as the criteria by which to construct international hierarchy. This meant first that no consensus was possible, either on the international order itself, or on the criteria to be used; and second, that not only princes, but also diplomats, lawyers, and historians were deeply involved in these conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a report from an April 16-17, 2015 on the history of Spanish cities in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age hosted by the Network para la investigación sobre la Península Ibérica en la Antigüedad historical society. Topics of presentations delivered included the importance of Roman infrastructure to 8th-century Arab invaders, the history of the urban design of Toledo and Reccopolis, Spain, and Islamic influences on the structure and design of Spanish streets.